China Trip Feb./March 2016 – Day 4

At the risk of sounding like everyone who wrote about it ever – pictures can not convey how great the Great Wall truly is. Or how fucking steep (55 degrees in some cases both up and down) which is why I will ask anyone attempting to walk it for a longer while to assess his or her condition, both mental and physical. It is incredible strenuous to walk the damn thing and mid-way my legs were jelly and I have no clue how I managed to walk all of it without just collapsing forever and asking everyone to leave me to die. And I am 100 % sure that without having lost a good 15kg between now and October last year as well as boosting up my overall condition, I would not have made it.

We visited Badaling which according to travelchinaguide.com is „the best-preserved and most completed section“ and „compared with other sections, most stairs are not very steep and equipped with handrails, so it is relatively easier for a climbing“. TO THE LATTER I CALL BULLSHIT, the space between the stairs is either too narrow or too wide so annoying to climb, the handrails are rather low and not steep? If a 55 degree angle is not steep, I dread to imagine what’d fit the description.
We used the North Route which took us the three hours quoted so at least we made good time?

(While I was slowly dying, my father was hopping around the slopes like some demented ibex on speed – dude has toomuch energy!)

But enough of the babbling, pictures! You can totally see where I switched from taking scenic shots to document just how fucking steep the shit was.

We also all got a certificate proclaiming us to be great heroes because we climbed the wall (it’s fancy srsly)!

Tomorrow our plane leaves at 10:30am so I won’t have time to see anything anymore but eh, for a four day trip I saw what I wated to see the most so I tremendously enjoyed it… even though I am glad to soon be back in a country where I can freely access the internet. And play catch-up.